There are various types of wireless communications systems and devices, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Widely-used paging systems are designed to maximize the battery life of mobile units. They do this by specifying short time slots for communication to specific mobile units. The mobile units can then turn themselves "off" or enter a "sleep" mode between such time slots to conserve battery power. One disadvantage to these types of systems, however, is that they support only very short message lengths. Other types of wireless communications systems are used to implement wide area networks where higher bandwidth is required. These systems support lengthy data transfers, but require that receivers monitor a radio frequency at all times, thus reducing battery life.
It would be desirable for a user of personal wireless communication services to be able to utilize both type of systems, and to retain some or all of the advantages of both. The invention described below provides this capability. Specifically, the invention allows a mobile messaging device having only a single radio transceiver to communicate concurrently with two different types of wireless networks or communication systems.